


Lovely routine

by Sashaya



Series: All the single ladies (grab your gal-pals) [2]
Category: Tomb Raider (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Mentions of canon character death, Post Tomb Raider (2013), Recovery, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 12:18:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6610426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sashaya/pseuds/Sashaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>There are better days ahead.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lovely routine

**Author's Note:**

> This work is un-beta'ed. Criticism is welcomed.
> 
>  ** _Disclaimer:_** _I don't own any of the characters._

_After_ days pass over like always.

She still has to wake up.

Dress up.

Kiss Sam – not goddess-like, not angel-like, nothing supernatural or eternal Sam.

Kiss _just_ Sam.

Hold her hand. 

Hold her hand like it’s the only thing left tethering her to reality, to safety of _here and now_ , while Sam looks in front of her with dark, sleepless eyes.

It’s a chore. No, just a routine Lara learnt to love because it gave her feeling of belonging, feeling of something constant and _after_ she needed that.

Lara dresses up and makes coffee, extra strong because Sam is dealing slowly with her demons – not real demons, no Oni hiding here in the middle of the city – and she sleeps less, not enough. It’s one of many problems and Lara knows it’s not healthy but she’s far from okay herself.

She can’t judge Sam, when she falls asleep crying and hugging Sam’s cold form. She can’t judge Sam, when Alex keeps haunting her dream, keep yelling at her for leaving him to die. She can’t judge Sam, when she keeps waking up times and times again in the middle of the night.

Recovery is slow for the both of them.

Attending funerals – so many funerals with no bodies, so many families, who would never see their loved ones again, Reyes’ little girl never meeting her father – didn’t help, not that they thought it would but Sam and Lara needed closure and their therapists agreed it would help.

Lara has been thinking about changing her therapist after that.

She hasn’t decided yet.

Lara makes her coffee extra sweet with milk. It’s a luxury she missed _back then_. Even running on adrenaline she missed the taste of good coffee that could wake her up without a hitch. 

Adrenaline was good for that too but later always came sleepiness, lack of energy and _back then_ it was the worst outcome. Coffee was safer. 

Coffee means they’re not trapped in the forsaken island.

Lara brings a simple black coffee to Sam, who blinks and almost smiles. She’s tired, rings under her eyes has taken permanent inhabitancy there and there are days when Lara doesn’t remember her without them. 

(She can remember Sam in a white dress and crown of flowers, barefoot and it’s the worst memory she could have. There will never be anything pure about a wedding dress now.)

Lara sits beside Sam, let her body relax and plays a memory about a delicate ring and a plan in her head. The ring is somewhere in the ocean and Lara can’t say she regrets losing it.

Sam joins their hands together, gently caresses Lara’s skin and presses a kiss to Lara’s cheek. 

“When we’re better” Sam says in a bit rough voice, “We’ll get married”

Lara takes a drink of her coffee and hums.

“Of course” she answers.

“When we are better” Sam repeats. A promise to them both because it can’t be an _if_ , they have plans, it has to be _when_. 

“Yes” Lara agrees.

The recovery is going slow. There are sleepless nights or nights full of nightmares, regrets. There are memories they’re doing their best to repressed. 

There’s a routine that anchors them both.

Wake up.

Dress up.

Kiss Lara.

Kiss Sam.

Make coffee.

Promise a future with purpose, future together.

Almost smile.

There are better days ahead.


End file.
